Caught in the Crosshairs
by That Yaoi Boy
Summary: Sent to restore order after the deadliest terror attack in Konoha history, Sasuke Uchiha ends up finding far more than he bargained for in the pursuit of justice. Can he navigate the sea of secrets and lies to find the ugly truth? AU, SasuNaru yaoi.
1. Advent

This is not going to be a good read for the squeamish, nor will those opposed to the yaoi persuasion find what they're looking for here. That said, this _will _end up being a yaoi story; SasuNaru to be more exact. I'm not sure anyone has tried to write Naruto as a gay terrorist before and I plan to have a lot of fun with it. Per usual, I don't own Naruto and all that good stuff, so don't sue me okay?

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><p>Far above the bustling streets of downtown Konoha, atop the highest building in the city, a lone figure kept watch, the spikes of his shoulder length blond hair rustling gently in the breeze. He brought a pair of tactical binoculars up to his deadened blue eyes and turned his gaze towards the city center, where a massive crowd had gathered to celebrate the election of their first female mayor.<p>

Dr. Tsunade Senju was a beautiful woman with many accomplishments to her credit. The daughter of one of Konoha's political elite, she had been exposed to the public eye from an extremely early age. As she grew older and her talents blossomed, she began to make a name for herself; first as a community leader, then as a doctor, and more recently as an up-and-coming politician.

Her sweeping campaign platform had been labeled a ray of hope for the beleaguered capital city, which had long been scarred by rampant corruption and violence. The promise to stamp out the various crime syndicates and disreputable organizations that infested the city had resonated with voters just as her advisers predicted, but with such exposure inevitably came less…desirable attention.

The innocent citizens of Konoha had not been the only ones to take notice of the reformist candidate. Nor did everyone watching agree with her policies.

The man on the roof sighed and set the binoculars aside. It was almost time.

"Deidara, is everything in place?" he mouthed into the small communicator attached to his ear.

"Yeah, everything's ready to blow, Kyuu-chan. Just say the word!" Deidara's joyous voice crackled over the device.

Unconsciously, the blond scowled at the use of the horrid nickname, despite the affectionate tone that had accompanied it. After all, the infamous assassin Kyuubi had climbed all the way up to #9 on the World's Most Wanted Criminals listing and any association or reference to said name was bound to bring trouble. They could never be too careful in this line of work.

"You know better than to call me that, especially now when I need to concentrate," he chided his comrade halfheartedly. Deidara never listened to him anyway.

There was silence for a moment before the other man responded, "Sorry, sorry. Fine then, tell me whenever you're ready, Naruto."

The blond rolled up a sleeve and looked at the small, silver watch he was wearing, "It'll be only another few minutes. She's scheduled to start speaking exactly at five."

"Good, good! Seriously, you don't know how much this wait is killing me here!"

"I can only imagine," Naruto remarked sardonically and shut the device off. "Psychopath," he muttered in disgust.

He shifted his gaze once more, letting it come to rest on the ledge where he had mounted his custom-built, silenced sniper rifle; his Justice. The adrenaline had already begun to flow as he took up his position behind the high-powered scope.

Tsunade was standing behind the podium now and appeared to be quieting the cheering throngs of her supporters.

He brought the cross-hairs squarely onto her forehead and adjusted for wind, using all of the skills he had learned as a marksman to calculate the perfect shot.

Quick, clean, painless and most important of all, completely unpredictable.

In this lay his true power; the terror inspired from such a sudden attack. One well-placed bullet would create panic for weeks; a situation his employer found most appealing.

With Tsunade dead, so too would Konoha's last hopes for change crumble away into nothing. And to make sure the message was inescapably clear, Deidara had been sent along to wreak his own explosive brand of havoc among the populace.

Just one more minute; sixty seconds until the end…and the beginning.

The thought both excited and terrified him. However, now was not the time for such thoughts; he had a job to do and he would see it through regardless of any personal feelings.

He pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation. Justice responded in kind.

A few seconds later Naruto watched through the scope as Tsunade halted abruptly mid-sentence, her eyes went wide as the bullet pierced her skull and lodged itself in her brain. She stumbled forward and groaned, then with a horrible lurch fell backwards onto the stage, blood beginning to pool around her head.

"Deidara."

"Yeah?"

"Do it."

—

"...and so it is with great pleasure that I accept this honor which you have bestowed upon me; to be your mayor and to do my utmost for the betterment of our fair city. I promise all of you here now, your trust is not misplaced, your hopes are not in vain. Today marks the beginning of a new, positive chapter in Konoha's history. Let us all welcome it tog-!"

Tsunade suddenly stumbled forward as time seemed to stop; her eyes scanned the crowd wildly before she convulsed and fell backwards, landing with a sickly thud.

For a moment there was dead silence. Then the confusion set in as the crowd wondered what had just happened; many of them were already showing signs of panic. Security officials seemed to burst from every corner of the rally as Tsunade was quickly surrounded by medical personnel.

The few bystanders close enough to see what had happened began to scream wildly, "She's been shot! The mayor's been shot!"

On hearing this, people began to scatter every which way, pushing and shoving desperately to escape the murder scene.

From the 20th floor of an office building a few blocks away, Deidara watched with glee as the rally turned to complete chaos. Any second now…

"Deidara."

Finally it was time. "Yeah?" he asked with barely-contained excitement.

"Do it."

A nightmarish smile spread across the man's thin lips; his time had come at last. He pulled a small remote from his pocket and played with it for a second, admiring it and the purpose it served. "But what's even more beautiful…" he chuckled, licking his lips.

He pressed the button and his laughter was drowned out by a gigantic explosion erupting from City Hall, annihilating everything and everyone in the vicinity.

Contract complete.

—

Back on the rooftop, Naruto grimaced as the massive explosion engulfed the city center, wiping out the entire area in an instant, along with most of the people who had attended the rally.

Even he, a world-famous professional assassin, couldn't help but stand in awe at the devastation done at the mere push of a button. And to think that it was all caused by a single man. This was a different sort of terror entirely—true insanity at its worst.

It sent chills down the blond's spine.

He turned on the communicator and started to speak, only to be greeted by Deidara's insane, inhuman laughter. The psychopath truly did enjoy his work, his 'art'.

"Let's go Deidara, we've got to get out of here and report back to HQ. I'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

More laughter.

Naruto tore off the communicator and crushed it with his boot. There was no time to worry about his partner; he could already hear the sirens blaring in the distance. It was time for him to disappear back into the shadows where he belonged...

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><p>I first had the idea for this story like two years ago and am just now getting around to messing with it haha. Hopefully it turns out alright.<p> 


	2. Dissension

Deidara was late. This could not be good.

Naruto glanced at his watch for the fourth time that minute, desperately willing the other blond to appear. With what they'd just pulled off, even the slightest delay could prove disastrous.

He actually breathed a sigh of relief some 30 seconds later when he spotted his partner emerge from a side street further up the block. It was quickly followed by a groan of disgust as he noticed the sadistic smirk plastered across the bomber's face.

"Yo, Kyuu-chan, did you see that blast!" Deidara asked excitedly once he had reached the darkened alleyway Naruto had been waiting in. "Haha that's got to be among the top ten—no top five explosions I've ever seen! The way those buildings collapsed and caused a ripple effect shock-wave—my god it was orgasmic. Tell me you saw my art, man! Tell me I'm a genius!"

For his part, Naruto felt ready to vomit. How anyone could actually enjoy such things was beyond him. There wasn't time for this now, however.

"You're late," Naruto stated pointedly, doing his best to stifle the revulsion he felt. "And don't call me that," he added.

Deidara's smile fell a bit and he scratched his temple sheepishly. "Yeah well, there was sorta this cop who tried to stop me, but don't worry, I took care of it. Everything's fine!"

"He's dead?"

"Well, I shot him in the head, so I'm pretty sure he..."

With speed hardly to be believed, Naruto pinned his partner against a wall before Deidara could even react.

"You got spotted by a witness and then didn't even bother to make sure he was dead!" Naruto snarled dangerously.

"Urgh—I told you, I got him in the head! Even if he survived it, he'll bleed out before anyone helps him. Y- you're hurting me!"

Naruto let go and the other man fell to his knees, coughing violently and clutching at his throat.

"For your sake, I hope that's true, Deidara. Pain isn't going to like this at all."

"Pain doesn't like anything." Deidara chuckled through his coughing fit. He regained his composure after another moment and stood up, grin firmly back in place. "Hey, where's your rifle anyway?"

"I stashed Justice in a sewer grate I had prepared earlier. I'll go back and get her later tonight, once things have died down some."

Deidara blinked dumbly and burst out laughing. "Heh, _died_ down, that's a good one! You're even worse than I am sometimes Kyuu-chan!"

Scowling now for a variety of reasons, Naruto made no reply and took off running towards the end of the alley where their escape car was waiting, Deidara following close behind him.

Once Naruto was sure no one was watching, he started the car and sped off towards the shipping district. The empty street was left quiet once more, save for the occasional faint scream drifting on the wind

—

Two hours later and half the country away, a young man lay naked across the bed of his darkened hotel room, enjoying the quiet moment that always comes just after waking up from a good nap.

His name was Sasuke Uchiha.

Officially, he worked a boring nine-to-five desk job at the Defense Ministry. In reality, he was a special inspector for ANBU, the government's top secret investigative unit. When local law enforcement couldn't get the job done and sending in the army wasn't an option, it was always ANBU that cleaned up the mess.

While Sasuke took pride in being one of the youngest recruits in the program's history, and as much as he loved the work, he was glad to finally have some time to relax.

As if on cue, the phone started ringing and he begrudgingly got up to answer it. "Yeah?"

"Sorry to disturb, but there's a Mr. Hatake on the line for you sir and he claims it's urgent. Would you like me to put him through?"

This couldn't be good.

"Yes, go ahead," he grumbled, wondering what this was going to be about.

He waited a moment until the sudden background noise of the frantic ANBU office let him know the connection had been established.

"The hell do you want Kakashi and make it quick—you're interrupting my vacation."

There was a pause and Sasuke swore he could feel the other man's amusement in bothering him.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

"We've got big trouble here Sasuke and I mean BIG trouble. You've got to come back immediately—your vacation just got canceled."

"What the fuck do you mean 'canceled'? I've worked at the agency for almost five years and in all that time I've never taken any time off and now as soon as I do you want to..."

"Look, I don't have time to argue agent," Kakashi cut in angrily. "Shut the fuck up, turn on the news, and get your ass back here now. That's an order."

The line went dead before Sasuke could make any reply, so he reacted the way any logical person would—he slammed the phone down and glared at it.

With a defeated sigh, he picked up the remote and flicked the TV onto a news station.

The remote fell from his hand instantly.

"_...over a thousand attendees have been confirmed dead already, while several hundred wounded have been taken to area hospitals for emergency care. Authorities say both numbers are expected to rise as night falls over frantic search-and-rescue operations in and around the blast zone. Early estimates are putting the death toll as high as 4,000, though analysts say it will be weeks before a definitive number is reached."_

"Holy fuck..." Sasuke whispered, sitting down on the bed and taking a deep breath as he watched live, birds-eye footage of Konoha's devastated city center.

"_Once again, for those of you just tuning in, a tragic day in the nation's capital as terrorists successfully detonated several incendiary devices during a victory rally at City Hall for the newly elected mayor, Dr. Tsunade Senju. Accounts from several sources report that Dr. Senju was shot just before the bombs went off, however, this remains unconfirmed at this time. We'll have more as the story develops."_

"It just had to be during my vacation," Sasuke muttered and set about getting dressed.

Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.

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><p>I've decided to update every few days with shorter chapters, rather than every few weeks with a long one. I'll try to actually stick with it haha.<p> 


	3. Homecoming

Oh look, its update time again and I'm actually going to answer some of the questions flying around in this chapter. This is the unedited version (I'm impatient okay?) I'll be replacing it with the edited version once my beta has a chance to look it over tomorrow, so please excuse any small mistakes you may find here and there.

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><p>Night had fallen by the time Naruto and Deidara reached the shipping district—the direct result of an overly-cautious Naruto choosing a roundabout route.<p>

He claimed it was to avoid any possible pursuit, but Deidara had a sneaking suspicion there was a lot more to it than that. It wasn't any of his business, however, so he let it slide without inquiry.

"Naruto, uh, do I have to see him too or..?" Deidara trailed off, his voice full of apprehension.

The assassin parked outside of a nondescript warehouse adjacent to the water and sighed, steeling himself for what was to come.

"I'll make my report alone, but he'll probably want to see you at some point. He's definitely not going to appreciate a possible witness."

Deidara's hopeful expression deflated a bit and he thought about the implications. "Well, you could just, yanno, not tell him, right?" the bomber finally concluded.

Naruto snorted at the notion. "Have you ever tried to lie to him? It doesn't work and it never ends well, trust me on that point." He couldn't suppress a shiver from running down his spine as unpleasant memories surfaced, only to be pushed away as quickly as they came.

They got out of the car and walked around to a side entrance where Naruto hurriedly typed a passcode into the keypad that kept the door locked. After a moment, they heard a small _click_ and Naruto pushed the door open to reveal an empty corridor.

The pair entered silently and Deidara shut the door behind them while Naruto scrutinized the area.

Something felt...off.

Not one to endure silence for any longer than necessary, Deidara started tramping down the hallway towards the makeshift lounge they had set up for the 'normal' employees.

"I'm gonna go get a snack," Deidara informed him casually, patting Naruto cheerily on the shoulder as he passed by. "If I'm going to get shot, it's not going to be on an empty stomach," he added, seeing the incredulous face of his partner.

'Fair enough,' Naruto thought, watching Deidara turn a corner and disappear. The man had a point; it was entirely possible Deidara would be violently punished for his little slip-up. It was possible _both_ of them would be.

Right now, though, there were more important things to worry about.

He advanced onto the main floor of the warehouse proper and was once again surprised by how deserted the building seemed. Where were the guards?

"Hello?" Naruto called, unsure of what was going on. It was definitely too quiet.

"You're finally back. We were beginning to worry," a thin, silky voice replied from a catwalk above him.

Naruto spun around wildly, his concealed pistol already drawn and ready for a firefight. He instantly relaxed once he recognized the owner of the voice.

Itachi Uchiha was an odd one, even by Naruto's standards.

He was legendary among the country's criminal element for the vast network of contacts and informants he employed; basically, if you wanted sensitive information on just about anyone or anything, you went to Itachi. However, the majority of his clients never dealt with him directly, but rather an elaborate dead-drop system he devised; thus he had developed a sort of 'boogeyman' status in underworld circles.

When Itachi had first joined the group—now almost six years ago, Naruto had been curious and did a little bit of digging around himself. He managed to obtain a civilian writeup on Itachi and remembered being surprised by what he found. Not only was Itachi the firstborn son and heir to the Uchiha, one of Konoha's oldest and wealthiest families, but he was also officially listed as deceased.

Naruto being Naruto, he had brazenly demanded to know what the true story behind it all was, to which Itachi had only smiled faintly and criticized the blond's poor choice of sources.

"Had you simply paid me for the information, you would have received a much more thorough dossier," he chuckled softly at the then-flummoxed Naruto.

Over the years, they had worked together on many contracts, ranging from corporate espionage and sabotage to high-profile kidnapping and assassination.

Naruto always knew a mission was particularly sensitive or important whenever Itachi was assigned as his handler—it meant that the job not only had to be done, but that it had to be done with the particular finesse only Itachi excelled at.

Of course, it didn't hurt that they actually got along quite well, either; the mutual respect forged from working together so often had eventually evolved into real friendship.

Well, as real a friendship as was possible, given their dubious line of work.

"Oh, Itachi, it's just you."

An almost imperceptible smirk crossed the other man's face; had Naruto not known him for so long, he never would have noticed it.

"Just me? Naruto, are you trying to insult me?" Itachi asked, his bored voice laced with dry sarcasm.

Naruto grinned and leaned back against some nearby boxes. "You know what I mean."

Itachi nodded, his small smile vanishing in the process. "It would seem to me that congratulations are in order. Another mission successfully completed—well done."

Naruto frowned and looked away. "Save it. You know I hate ones like this."

There was silence for a moment, until Naruto looked back up, only to discover Itachi had stealthily descended a ladder and was now mere feet away from him.

"I swear Itachi, you're a fucking ninja sometimes," he grumbled as the dark-haired man sat down on a crate beside him.

"Perhaps I was, in another life."

Naruto chuckled at the thought. "I bet you were still just as much of an aloof asshole. Maybe even more so."

Itachi huffed a bit, but the blond could tell he was amused.

"So, where are all the other members?"

"They have been assigned various tasks in preparation for the next phase. Everyone left once we felt your success. You should be glad you were not here to see the look of ecstasy on his face when the blast went off—it was...distasteful to say the least."

The blond blanched at the thought. It took a lot and he meant _a lot_ to unnerve Itachi Uchiha, but hearing the tone of his friend's voice brought that same shiver racing back down Naruto's spine.

"I can well imagine. Is that why everything feels so, so _wrong_ in here?"

Itachi nodded solemnly, letting Naruto know that he wasn't the only one able to feel it. "You know Pain; his presence and bearing are quite strong, even for those of us somewhat accustomed to it."

Naruto had never really understood the strange aura that surrounded Pain, Akatsuki's eccentric leader, though, this was by no means for lack of trying. It frustrated him endlessly that he was no closer to that understanding now than he had been upon first meeting the man—almost two decades ago.

He had gone by Nagato back then and that was what Naruto stilled referred to him as; it was his way of trying to keep some memory alive of the man who had saved him all those years ago. Nagato had been so different once, though in hindsight Naruto suspected he had simply been too naive to see things as they really were. Perhaps he simply hadn't wanted to.

In the quiet moments, when he was completely honest with himself, he admitted he still didn't.

Nowadays, the man called Pain was distinctly insane on multiple levels and made no apologies for it, yet he was still possessed of a cold, calculating intellect few could rival.

Every major crime syndicate and organization in the country danced to his tune, whether they were aware of it or not. It didn't matter in the long run anyway—Pain was too deeply entrenched in the inner workings of sin to be easily removed.

Smuggling, gambling, drug-running, arms sales, prostitution, human-trafficking, extortion, theft, kidnapping, murder—you name the illegal activity and it could probably be traced back to Pain.

Assuming one lived long enough to do so, that is.

The only one to ever really come close in exposing him had been Dr. Tsunade and...that clearly hadn't ended very well, at least not for her.

The bullet had been a personal; the time and place of the attack merely a coincidental expedient.

Pain's will, Pain's justice would soon envelop Konoha like a firestorm and after that...well, Naruto shuddered to think of what would come next. It could literally be anything.

"He's still waiting for you," Itachi whispered suddenly, breaking Naruto from his reverie. "You're going to have to go down there eventually."

Naruto inhaled deeply, releasing the air a moment later in the form of a long, sad sigh and pushed away from the crates. "I know. Its kinda fucked up but, part of me is actually looking forward to it. I keep thinking it'll be the old him this time, but it never is."

"Naruto..."

"He really was different before, Itachi. He may have done evil things, but he himself wasn't—" Naruto stopped himself mid-sentence and shook his head in an effort to regain his composure. "No, this isn't the time for this. I've got a report to deliver."

With that he walked off towards the hidden entrance to the sub-levels, determined to get through his debrief and finally end this terrible day.

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><p>Originally, I had planned for this to be a longer chapter, but it works out better when cut in half. I swear the actual yaoi part of this story is coming up soon. I haven't forgotten. XD<p> 


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